The Missing Ingredient

Today, I am exhausted! On top of planning activities that are relevant, meaningful, rigorous, and offer choice, I also try to use technology to engage my students. This is time consuming, but doable! The real problem is that there is a missing ingredient in most students sitting in their desks.

I am not talking about my students per say; I am talking about their behavior and or the way they have been trained by past teachers and parents who have overused extrinsic motivation strategies. As a parent, I learned quickly that my son would go “number two” if he got a new Thomas the Tank Engine piece. Well, I ran out of trains and moved to cases and other Thomas the Tank Engine items. I became broke, and he stopped going “number two” in the potty!

This pattern continued through his K-12 education. There was the reward for good behavior in kindergarten, the reward for completing homework in 4th grade, the 7th grade sticker chart for writing in his planner, and in high school, we tried to get him to use his agenda and stay organized. These are just a few! Yet, what I did not understand was that as he got older, it was not important to him, I had run out of rewards I could offer that he would like, or I just could not afford them. In some cases, we were trying to motivate him to work for better grades and other times for keeping his room clean or doing his chores. I missed the point all those years. He never felt motivated to do any of those things for the reward of doing them. This makes me think of my husband. When he works on redoing a flowerbed, he often stops and admires his work. He does this because he feels a sense of accomplishment. This was the “missing ingredient” in my son’s life.

I believe in using extrinsic motivation strategies in the classroom and with parenting, but children should experience intrinsic rewards for the sense of accomplishment at some time in their lives. Think about it. We have a large portion of society that does not want to go to work. They see no reward in a paycheck. My son used to be that way too, but now he enjoys his job and goes because he is motivated to work and grow with his company.

This should be the same reality in schools. Students should enter classrooms that ignite their interests. They should find teachers who are willing to allow them to have choice in some of their work, both homework and classwork, as well as allow them to be creative in their assessments. There should be a correlation between effort and grades. None of the above things are easy for a teacher to do because they take time. However, teachers see their students growing, and this makes it worth it. They don’t get paid anymore than the teacher who goes home at the bell everyday, but that is an entirely new topic. In short, teachers feel an intrinsic reward for their instructional efforts because they see their students learning and growing.

Since I am one of those teachers who puts 150% into their classroom, I get disappointed when so many of my students do not do the things they made a choice to do. I don’t understandt. It takes so much effort to get students to do their classwork and homework. I can’t take it personally because it is the norm. This does not mean that I will lower my standards.

By 10th grade, one would think that they would be responsible enough to do their work most of the time. This is not the case. I write this in worry because most high school teachers do not schedule many conferences, call home, send progress reports, and mail letters of concern. The thought is that they are ready for the responsibility. Most parents do not call and check on their children. The kids are getting lost in the system. The district keeps cutting the amount of planning time for teachers due to budget cuts etc. Yet, I still keep sending paperwork home and making calls. These are done well after the day is over. I have my home number and cell number on my website. I am available for my parents and students. Then there are the after school help dates, tutoring, and detentions aftter school.

I can give all of this time and effort, but I cannot make anyone embrace their education. Motivating students by tickets, prizes, passes, extra credit, candy, snacks, and parties have become the norm. They do not appreciate the education they receive. They do not know what it feels like to have a sense of accomplishment for doing a task at hand. Some days it feels like the extrinisc reward syndrome is taking over and few are motivated, but I don’t stop fighting for what I believe in, which is showing kids that feeling a sense of accomplishment over a job well done feels good. This feeling can be repeated and is linked to success.